The Rugby Union of Russia is delighted to announce that our number of followers on Twitter has hit 100,000!
The RUR is one of just two unions (Japan being the other) to run mirror bilingual official accounts and our @rugbyrussia (Russian) and @russiarugby (English) handles hit a combined six-figure follower total early morning on March 18, 2016.

The accounts opened in late 2010 and early 2011, ahead of Russia's participation in Rugby World Cup 2011 (#RWC11) – the world's first global sporting event to truly invest in and embrace social media – and in the five years since the RUR has striven to use the feeds to keep the rugby world abreast of news and events in the Russian rugby landscape. Our most-followed events include coverage of Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 (#RWC7s), our national team's (#RugbyBears) games in the European Nations Cup (#ENC1A) and Enisei-STM Krasnoyarsk's (@rcenisei) exploits in the European Challenge Cup (#ERChallengeCup). Recently, Russia's men's and women's participation as Core sides in the HSBC World Sevens Series (@WorldRugby7s) has proved a massive influence in boosting our following, helping to elevate Russia's position as a Union determined to grow the game across both the XVs and Sevens codes.

Since launch, the accounts have posted a combined near 30,000 Tweets and the feeds have become key media for informing Russian rugby's growing fanbase and interacting with other Unions and stakeholders in our game. Domestically, Twitter has been vital in providing news and information in a non-traditional rugby market with originally limited, but quickly-growing media coverage, while internationally it has served as a tool to inform and engage fans from around the world. In a virtual World Rugby rankings of Twitter followers, the RUR would currently sit in 11th (between Japan and Italy), highlighting not only the growing interest in Russian rugby, but the vast potential numbers Russian rugby has to exploit in our country.

"We are delighted with the swell in interest in Russian Rugby across social media. The Rugby Union of Russia is hugely proud of our social media coverage, which is a serious asset to our Union. Our accounts form part of our commitment to supporting the growth of the @rugby_europe social media community,of which we are a very proud part.We look forward to bringing you more exciting news regarding developments in Russian Rugby via our Twitter feeds," Rugby Union of Russia President Vyacheslav Kopiev said.

We would like to extend our thanks our media managers since our Twitter accounts' inception – Sergey Markov (@markov_rugby), Nikolay Dulev (@n_dulev), Masha Anderson (@marijaanderson), Andrey Lipovetsky (@zigzagmakryak), Anton Khalizov and Leon Addie (@leonaddie). But most of all we would like to thank each and every Twitter user who has followed us, liked, retweeted or engaged with us! Thank you for the support!

Our Twitter policy is shaped by openness and engagement, and we endeavour to respond to all mentions and interactions. So why not join the conversation and follow the #RugbyBears on Twitter! #GrowingtheGame